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And it is scarce y hazarding too much to say, that the potent influence of the example given and of the principles inculcated by this declaration, will continue to operate until republican freedom and republican governments will replace all the rotten thrones and despotic institutions which now afflict and disgrace the world. Such is the inherent and unconquerable power of truth!

CHAPTER IV.

MR. JEFFERSON DECLINES A RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS-RESULTS OF H LABORS IN CONGRESS-APPOINTED COMMISSIONER TO FRANCE- HE DE CLINES- HE TAKES HIS SEAT IN THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA -HA PROPOSES A LAW FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE -HE PROPOSES A LAW FOR THE ABOLITION OF ENTAILS- -HE PROPOSES A BILL TO OVERTHROW THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA-FIERCE CONFLICTS WHICH ENSUED THE FINAL RESULT JEFFERSON'S ULTIMATE TRIUMPH-ESTABLISHMENT OF ABSOLUTE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN VIRGINA-MR. JEFFERSON OBTAINS THE PASSAGE OF A LAW ABOLISHING THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE IN VIRGINIA- -HISTORY OF THAT KEFORM IN

FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

MR. JEFFERSON's term of service in the Continental Congress expired on the 11th of August, 1776. Before the arrival of that period he had notified the convention of Virginia that he declined a re-election. Nevertheless that body chose to act contrary to his wishes, and he was again unanimously reelected. This result did not alter his own purpose, and he again wrote to the chairman of the convention, resigning positively the proffered honor. Two causes induced him at this period to withdraw from the national councils. One of these was the necessity which existed that he should attend to his private affairs at home. But the chief reason was a desire to participate in the formation of the new

constitution and government which were about to be formed and adopted in Virginia. Says he: "The new government in Virginia was now organized, a meeting of the legislature was to be held in October, and I had been elected a member by my county. I knew that our legislation, under the royal government, had many very vicious points which urgently required reformation; and I thought I could be of more use in forwarding that work. I therefore retired from my seat in Congress." On the 2d of September, 1776, Mr. Harrison, his successor, arrived at Philadelphia, and Jefferson immediately returned to Virginia. The period of his actual presence in the national councils had been only nine months; and yet at the early age of thirty-three he had taken the first rank among the leading patriots. of the colonies; he had led their opinions and moulded their measures; and he had impressed the stamp of his genius and of his principles upon the great title deeds and symbols of the nation's rights and liberties.

On the 30th of September he received another evidence of the confidence with which he had inspired the members of the Continental Congress. They appointed him a joint-commissioner to France, with Dr. Franklin and Silas Dean, to negotiate treaties of alliance and commerce with that govern

ment. This was a trust of the greatest importance to the interests of the nation; and yet so earnest was the desire of Mr. Jefferson to superintend and assist in the establishment of the new government and constitution of his native State, that he again declined an honorable appointment which would have interfered with the realization of his wishes on that subject.

We have now reached that period in the life and labors of Mr. Jefferson when he ceases to be an exponent and representative of national measures, and assumes the attitude of the founder of a new and distinct school of politics; and when he began the proposal and defense of doctrines which have not unjustly won for him the epithet of the "Father of American Democracy." This course, it will be seen, he consistently pursued throughout the many years of high official position which marked his subsequent life.

Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the Legislature of Virginia on the 7th of October, 1776. Five days afterward he moved for leave to introduce a bill for the reorganization and establishment of the courts of justice. He was appointed chairman of the committee to whom the matter was referred; and he drew up an ordinance, which he submitted to the committee. They approved of all its provisions.

It was then reported to the house, by whom, after a thorough and careful examination, and the introduction of a few unimportant changes, it was unanimously adopted.

The provisions of the law prepared by Mr. Jefferson possess the qualities of simplicity, symmetry, and the spirit and form of republicanism. But in addition to these it could also claim the merit of great originality; for although a similar arrangement exists in the judicial institutions of other States at the present time, that proposed by Mr. Jefferson was the model after which they have all been drawn and executed. He divided the State into counties, and devised three courts of ascending grades, called the County, the Superior, and the Supreme Courts. The jurisdictions of these courts, and their relative number, were found admirably adapted to meet all the wants of the community. He gave new prominence and importance to the trial by jury, as the great bulwark of the rights of the people. He ordained that in all questions of law and of fact combined, as well as in all pure questions of fact, the reference to a jury was made imperative and unavoidable in the courts of law; and he would have carried this principle also into the Courts of Chancery, had he not, in this movement, been opposed and defeated by the efforts of

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